I have spring break coming up next week, so I have a little time and some funds to try to improve my car’s performance. I’m trying to decide what exhaust mods to do. Right now I have a stock exhaust with no muffler. I am planning to gut the cat, because it seems like it’s the biggest restriction on the exhaust. For a stock 305 engine, do the exhaust manifolds flow well enough or should I look into getting headers? I’ve heard that for adding horsepower it’s not worth getting headers for the money and hassle until you do some engine work first. Is that true?

 

No, it's not true.

Headers and exhaust is a good idea.

But of course you could argue any point I guess. What 305 do you have? Carb,TBI,TPI? Assuming the car is running well, i think you can't go wrong with headers and a catback system.

*EDIT* I see you have the LG4. I'm not an expert on the LG4, but like I said, you can't go wrong with the exhaust. Plus it sounds cool!

 

look into the hedman shorties and y-pipe or the hooker 2055's. those are the two headers worth anything.

if you can weld/fab and like true duals, you can get everything for true duals *including* longtubed headers from hedman for less than $300.

got to my cardomain site (in sig) and look on page 4 for some pics on my setup.

 

Thanks for replying. My main concern was whether I'd gain anything noticable except better sound by switching from the manifolds to headers. I guess I'm still a little undecided.

 

power will increase. with full headers back your looking at atleast a good 20+hp

 

The nice thing about upgrading exhaust on your engine is that no matter what, its going to have to be done some time or another. So you might as well do it sooner than later. 2055's are an excellent setup for the money.

-chillen